three wheeled streamlined trolley

The history of the great nelson trolleys

These are an incredible gravity vehicle class out of New Zealand. These machines have evolved into extreme examples of aerodynamic design and serious competition.

This style of trolley developed over a number of years around the annual Nelson Trolley Derby in Nelson, New Zealand.This derby has been going off and on since the '60's down Collingwood St. in Nelson .The race is a straight drag of around 330 m's with a vertical drop of around 20 m's. with 6 trolleys racing at a time from a standing start.So racing is similar to AASBD but open to any age and any design within very basic parameters of 3 wheels or more and max width and height of 1200 mm and max length of 3000mm

Nelson Trolleys at the starting line.

Over the years a class of 3 wheeled streamliners came to the winners circle in the Rockets class ( 18 and older) The first of these to really come to prominence was Sam Laidlaw with his plywood and card Blue Bullet in the late '80's. Sam won the derby almost every year for several years with this speedy beast. So in an attempt to stem this tide Tim Bayley designed RedRak Racer I .... a mean low racer based on a single front wheel steered by ones feet. Now this might have been fast but was a total beast to drive with almost no visibility. Tim was able to beat Sam in one race before spinning out ...

Sam continued to build amazing trolleys each year ... that proved very fast. So a new design was born and Tim Bayley's Redrak Racer II was born and some amazing racing was had, with the king being dethroned. Over the next couple of years Sam's would make his way back into dominance.

Sam Laidlaw's Blue Bullet

Tim Bayley's Redrak Racer II

So for the 2009 Derby Redrak Racer III was born and proved to be very fast. 2010 dawned with some major competition showing up on Derby day. Gordon Decombe with his "Spirit of Burt Munro". People trying all kinds of ideas and kept raising the bar on this incredible class of gravity machines. Even the Army Cadets joined the competition with the Rocket.

But Sam Laidlaw was not just sitting back in the shadows, he was back with his new Village Screamer. Also the arrival of the space ship, the Safari Spitfire showed up and started winning races. In 2011, the usual suspects were there on the incline, and Safari Spitfire won again

New designs show up every year ..... some work. And some DON'T !! But a new beast showed up in the form of Aussie Flash from the kids movie about the trolley derby Kiwi Flier ( Derby Dogs in the US ).

Gordon Decombe's Spirit of Burt Munro

Sam Laidlaw's Silver Ghost

Sam Laidlaw's Village Screamer

Jack Lovell's Nitrofish

The Safari Spitfire

The Aussie Flash

In 2012 the Blue Bullet ( with a new driver) finally came to a bit of a sticky end when he got cut off by his team member. This trolley, Aussie Flash, proved to be fast and gave birth to a whole family of them !! In 2013 they were racing and starting to win with Steve Lovell , composite genius, at the wheel.

Serious machines. The Safari Spitfire out of shape and in big trouble!

2014 dawned and a new Redrak was required. So Redrak IV was born and raced well, but Spitfire still won.

2015 required so tweaking of Redrak iV but still not enough and the "plastic fantastics" took out the derby and after a "bump grind" race Jack Lovell took out the final

Tim Bayley's Redrak IV trolley

So then on the 2016 and a new machine was called for. Tim Bayley's Redrak iLean, a new design of his was built with full suspension and 20o leaning for derbys with corners Tim's gravity creation was all made from plywood and redwood. But once again the plastic fantastics won the day ....... there is still some fine tuning required but this is a great trolley to drive .... Tim is now looking at taking on some corners and seeing just how fast she will go ...so the story continues.

Make sure to check out the WGSA Three Wheeled Streamlined Trolley gallery of these incredible machines!